Chicago City Wire

Chicago CityMayor's Office issued the following announcement on May 9.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today joined Chicago Public Schools to celebrate the schools named to the 2018 Best High Schools list by U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in education rankings. The top nine CPS schools landed in the top eleven rankings in Illinois and top four hundred in the nation.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, CPS CEO Dr. Janice K. Jackson and Board of Education President Frank M. Clark said in a joint statement, “These rankings are another deserved recognition for the hard-working students and dedicated teachers, principals and families at Chicago Public Schools. It is significant, yet not surprising, that CPS represents most of the best schools in Illinois and is among the ranks of the greatest schools in the country. These schools represent just a sampling of the many high quality schools that are raising the bar for success and leading education experts across the nation to take notice of Chicago’s progress.”

The top rankings among CPS schools include:

Walter Payton College Preparatory High School: 1st in Illinois, 52nd in the nation

Northside College Preparatory High School: 2nd in Illinois, 82nd in the nation

Lane Technical College Prep High School: 3rd in Illinois, 112th in the nation

Phoenix Military Academy High School: 4th in Illinois, 122nd in the nation

Jones College Prep High School 5th in Illinois, 124th in the nation

Whitney M. Young Magnet High School: 6th in Illinois, 140th in the nation

Lincoln Park High School: 9th in Illinois, 324th in the nation

Gwendolyn Brooks College Prepatory Academy: 10th in Illinois, 345th in the nation

Lindblom Math and Science Academy: 11th in Illinois, 395th in the nation

A total of twenty-two CPS high schools are among the top 100 across Illinois. The full list of the 2018 Best High Schools can be found at https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools.

The increased number of CPS schools represented on this year’s rankings demonstrated that Chicago’s continued investments in schools has accelerated Chicago students’ nationally-recognized progress and created new opportunities for students in every neighborhood. Next year, more than 5,000 additional students will have the opportunity to learn in proven, high-quality academic settings including at International Baccalaureate (IB) Early College STEM (Science Technology Math and Engineering) programs, and in military, magnet and classical schools.

Expanding academic programming including IB and STEM helps students get college and career credit while they’re still in high school, which moves the district closer to Mayor Emanuel’s goal of 50 percent of graduating seniors earning college and career credit by 2019. Last year, more than 43 percent of CPS graduates earned one or more college or career credentials through IB, AP, dual enrollment and other rigorous programs – representing a 39 percent increase since 2014.

These rankings also reaffirm what researchers from leading universities have found: CPS students are making durable progress that is an example for other urban districts around the country. Earlier this school year, groundbreaking research from Stanford Professor Sean Reardon showed that CPS students gain six years of growth in just five years of school and are improving at a rate faster than 96 percent of school districts in the U.S. – across every racial and socioeconomic subgroup.

U.S. News & World Report publishes the Best High Schools list annually. The 2018 edition evaluated more than 20,500 public high schools nationwide to identify schools that best serve all of their students – including historically underserved populations – and assess the degree to which students are prepared for college-level coursework. These rankings emphasize student outcomes, incorporating data on graduation rates and state assessments.

In 2017, a record 77.5 percent of CPS students earned a diploma – a 4-point gain and the highest year-over-year improvement in memory. The graduation rate has steadily risen by 36 percent since 2011 when just over half of CPS students earned a high school diploma. CPS continues to close in on the national graduation rate, with data showing a record 88.7 percent of freshmen are on-track to graduate, up more than 28 percent since 2011. The increase is driven by African-American and Hispanic students, who considerably narrowed the achievement gap.

Chicago Public Schools serves 371,000 students in 646 schools. It is the nation’s third-largest school district.

Original source can be found here.